Loren’s Blog

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It’s a Family Affair

A love of music draws generations of workers to Steinway Piano Factory in Astoria.

By: Caitlin Drexler with reporting by Loren Bonner and Ann Marie Costella

Under bands of wood held tensely in place by the ceiling of the Steinway Piano factory, 19 thin sheets of tulipwood are pressed into one uniform piece. Behind the worktable, newspaper clippings from the sports page of an Italian newspaper scream soccer highlights.

Up the stairs and past workers from Bangladesh, India and Croatia, another workstation showcases articles about the New York Giants. In the employee locker room on the same floor, a makeshift shrine to the Yankees hangs at eye-level.

On each of the four floors composing the 40,000 sq ft. building, banners display the company logo: ‘we are family.’

But despite the eclectic taste in sports and mélange of ethnicities, none of the 450 employees that work at Steinway in Astoria, Queens need to be reminded that they are family; the average tenure of a worker is 15 years and many have been there for more than 30.

The company has provided steady employment for more than 150 years, relying heavily on the waves of immigration that continuously wash into New York’s harbors.

“First it was Germans, Italians, Yugoslavs and Russians. Now it’s India and Haiti,” said Dominic Iovino. “But it’s always been a family.”

Iovino should know. During his 40 years as a tuner with the company, he has worked with two of his uncles and a cousin. And for many of those years, he tuned pianos side by side with Wally Boots. Boots, who grew up 2 blocks away from the factory, has worked at Steinway for 46 years. So have three of his brothers.

“At first it was just a job,” Boots said. “Now it is a passion.”

The passion Boots speaks of is obvious—the factory is full of burly blue-collar men delicately crafting intricate parts and running their ruddy fingers over faux-ivory keys. It is the thread that connects workers—who hail from more than two-dozen countries.

Though historically the factory provided a bellwether for immigration patterns in the Astoria, a recent influx of young professionals priced out of Manhattan has changed the neighborhood’s demographics. Steinway now relies on word-of-mouth—passed from cousins and uncles in America to relatives in villages all over the world—to acquire workers with the technical skills required to make one of Steinway’s iconic pianos.

“What we get are talented workers coming to us, either in woodcraft or in music,” said Leo Spellman, senior director of communication for Steinway.

In the small work where Boots and Iovino have sat together for decades, pictures cover the walls from ceiling to floor. It is impossible to tell where the photographs of family stop and those of colleagues begin. Leaning over the shiny lacquered top of a Steinway Grand, Boots proudly shows off the fringed American flag vest he wears while riding his motorcycle. Next to the vest is a calendar he recently made, each month featuring a fellow worker’s bike.

Looking on, Spellman smiled.

“The faces will change; the accents may change,” he said, “but the characters don’t.”

Q&A with Henry Steinway

Steinway is the great-grandson of the company’s founder and the last family member to lead the firm. Although he’s 92 years old and retired, Steinway still spends most mornings at the piano showroom on 57th Street in Manhattan.

What was it like growing up in the Steinway family?

I was one of six children. My mother was a Yankee. We were raised in the American Yankee manner. When I got out of college, 1937, it was the Depression. Then I said, “Should I try the piano business?” My old man said, “Sure.” So, I tried it.

I’m the inheritor, I can continue the tradition I guess. I have five children – some tried the business and didn’t like it. Now they are all over the country. So we sold it to CBS.

Can you talk about your family’s immigrant experience?

I don’t see myself as an immigrant. I was raised by a Yankee mother in an upper class New York way. I went to private schools, went to Harvard. I never thought of myself as “German-American”, which I suppose I am.

In 1937, when I started, there were still many workers of German origin. Then the Italians came in. Roman Catholic Germans and Italians married so we had many issues at that time, then of course the Greeks moved into Astoria and now it’s the League of Nations out there.

Has Steinway employed a lot of immigrants over the years?

Lots of South Americans recently, but I can’t tell you from where. They work their way up gradually. Some are foreman and supervisors. Now it’s a pretty general group representing New York and Queens, I think I heard Queens is one of the most diverse areas—various types, Thai and Korean. So it’s a very international community.

Do you think Steinway provides immigrants with opportunity to live the American Dream?

They do and they always have. I remember years ago when someone would die and there was a local funeral home that was used by a lot of the workers. I would attend some of these wakes. You’d see this guy who was a worker in the plant and his two sons who were lawyers. I mean the upward mobility.

We do have a few father-to-son relationships still. The family name Drasche has three generations there. The most recent one started his own business fixing up pianos somewhere out in Queens. So it has always been a very interesting community.

How has it changed?

The employees naturally move off the island. That’s why we have that big parking lot. I remember we built that years ago. We’d study the license plates to see who lives where and by then about half of them had moved off the island. About 20 years ago.

In the old days, the Steinway Street trolley—which is one of the last in New York—
went across the Queensboro Bridge. I used to take it. I think it started under the Manhattan Bridge. There was a track and I could get on there and go across the bridge to Steinway Street where the factory is. So that was the great means of transit for all the local people.

We were raised in Manhattan. My trips where to the Steinway mansion mostly. It was a lovely estate. About the early 20s, I couldn’t have been more than six, seven years old, they decided to sell it and my father was designated to clean out the stuff that was there so we’d sometimes go out and I remember playing around on the then expansive grounds. Now it’s all wire fence and all that stuff. We didn’t have any close connection to Astoria other than that. I’m the last guy that’s intimately connected with the business.

Does that make you sad?

No. It’s the normal American story. And a very good story. The guy comes over here with an idea. The family runs it. Then I sold it to CBS in ’72 and I haven’t regretted it for a minute even though CBS was going through all kinds of changes. So it’s a rather unique thing and I think it’s an American thing to be proud of because it’s gone through this typical American history of a family that was able to carry it on for a period of time, and then they put it in the hands, ultimately, of professional investors. And that’s the way to go. I’m happy with it.

You’re not going to be left in the dark if haven’t seen the commercial for
Restasis — the first prescription eye drop to treat dry eyes. The first time I saw it was during the five o’clock news, when most senior citizens are tuned in. Its maker, Allergan — also the maker of Botox — originally targeted baby boomers with the Restasis drug campaign, since the condition, Chronic Dry Eye, appears more frequently in those 65 years and older.

To sell the drug, Allergan coined the condition called Chronic Dry Eye or Dry Eye Syndrome. The advertisements for Restasis are not just selling the drug, but also the disease that goes with it.

Even if you have mild symptoms, you should consider it serious enough for the drug. On the Restasis website, you can take the “Do you have Dry Eye” quiz and bring the results to your doctor for a quick and easy solution: a prescription for Restasis.

Here is what one ophthalmologist had to say.

But it’s not just baby boomers who should wonder if they have Dry Eye. Since Allergan’s goal is to maximize profits, they have expanded their target audience. Restasis is now being directly marketed to young adults and children because they too are experiencing dry eyes as a result of staring at computer screens all day long, playing video games for hours and watching too much TV.

Chronic Dry Eye was just one of the results for some patients who’ve had unsuccessful LASIK eye surgery. Allergan certainly saw a marketing opportunity there.

Jeff Anshel, founder of Corporate Vision Consulting, an organization that assists people in using a computer without straining their eyes, said, “It seems that Allergan started marketing Restasis as a viable pre and post-op therapy to prevent LASIK related dry eyes.”

Should we question Allergan’s motives? Do they really care about our health?

Our first concern should be over the clinical testing for Restasis.

The FDA approved the drug in 2002 but only after some debate. In 1999, the FDA’s Ophthalmic Drugs Subcommittee unanimously rejected it after discovering that the clinical trials didn’t show efficacy. Basically, Restasis was no better than other medications for the condition. But Allergan wouldn’t take no for an answer. It added studies with more aggressive research and relaunched a successful bid.

It should also be noted, however, that all the clinical research and trials were done at Allergan. Obviously, this is going to bias the research since the company selling the drug is more interested in increasing sales than in obtaining medical knowledge.

A common complaint with Restasis is a sensation of burning in the eyes. Data from the clinical trials indicated that 17% of patients experienced this.

The active ingredient of Restasis is cyclosporine. The vehicle (a substance of no therapeutic value used to convey an active medicine for administration) for Restasis is actually marketed separately as an over-the-counter artificial tear product — Refresh Endura.

Since early clinical trials did not show a very clear superiority of the drug over the vehicle, doctors should recommend that their patients first try Refresh Endura before filling a prescription for Restasis.

Diagnosing Dry Eye can be a challenge for doctors. Since the patient symptoms are subjective, they can highly influence how a doctor treats the condition. Doctors need to be sure to rule out other underlying conditions — like diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis — before prescribing something like Restasis. Essentially, these diseases should be the guide in treating the condition, right?

Even so, most of us want a quick fix for our problems. Sales of Restasis increased by 42% to $270 million in 2006. Given that Restasis therapy can cost the dry eye patient more than 100 dollars a month, this makes sense.

On the other hand, drugs are not always the answer. Studies have shown that nutritional supplements can provide relief for patients who suffer from Dry Eye. Other alternatives include the Boston Scleral prosthetic lens, Dr. Holly’s drops, Panoptx and Wiley-X wraparound glasses, a rice baggy warm compress, and Tranquileyes hydrating goggles.

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Salam Arabic Lutheran Church, an evangelical ministry on Ovington Avenue, chose to adapt to a changing community. Brooklyn has witnessed a recent influx of Arab Christians from the Middle East, many who barely speak English. In order to cater to the Bay Ridge community’s needs, the church has branded itself as the only Arabic speaking Christian church around.

“Because of injustices in the Middle East, there’s a higher number of migration,” said the church pastor, Khader El-Yateem. The war in Iraq or persecutions in Palestine and Egypt, for example, have caused people to flee their home countries, he said.

One community’s diversity is evident on a beautiful fall day

By Loren Bonner

Bensonhurst Brooklyn is considered one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in all of Brooklyn. Storefront signs on 86th Street flip flop from Chinese to Russian back to English. Pharmacies and hospitals must provide translation services for the immigrant populations that are only getting larger. In microcosm, the little park on Cropsey Avenue tells the story of ethnic diversity the neighborhood now stands for.

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By Loren Bonner
Angry residents protested a Gravesend religious school’s plan to open a new preschool at its McDonald Avenue site, saying they feared the move would add to traffic and parking woes on an already-crowded block.

Emotions ran high at a recent Community Board 11 public hearing, where residents railed against giving Magen David Schools a zoning variance to open its new preschool next to the yeshiva’s existing elementary school near Lake Street.

Neighbors — including a United Cerebral Palsy branch that serves 22 disabled people and often has emergencies — said the yeshiva already brings too much congestion to the block, with schools buses and parents’ and teachers’ cars. They fear there will be increased traffic — and additional parking problems, thanks to an influx of 85 preschool teachers.

“I already can’t find a spot on the street,” said Mary Placanka, a Lake Street homeowner.

Magen David officials downplayed the concerns, citing a study they commissioned that found that opening a preschool in a building that once housed the Visiting Nurse Association and a metal railing company would have no adverse impact on traffic or air quality.

Howard Hornstein, a lawyer for Magen David, also noted that the elementary school and preschool would have staggered arrival and dismissal times.

It is unclear whether the community board even has a say in the matter. But Leonard Beninson, a longtime resident, said the board has a vital role to play: peacemaker.

“We need to sit down and talk or this will end up in a fight that will last forever,” he said.